From: Jim Weirich <jim@...>
Date: 2006-03-24T03:45:42+09:00
Subject: Re: What is the point of require_gem in Ruby 1.8.2?

Wes Gamble wrote:
> I just went through this mess over the last few hours...
> 
> http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/59185
> 
> If I do:
> 
> require_gem 'gemname', '>= version'
> 
> I discovered that require_gem doesn't actually do the "require" call on 
> the 1st argument.

That's because the first argument is the name of the Gem to be 
activated, not the name of a file to be required.

However, many gems have the same name as their main require file, so 
there is a lot of confusion.  Also some gems have an 'autorequire' flag 
set that /will/ do a require on the main file.

And to futher the confussion, the command name 'require_gem' was poorly 
selected.  Future versions of RubyGems will provide a better named 
command for this operation.

> So what's the point of require_gem then?

If you have multiple versions of a gem installed, the require_gem 
command specifies what version of the gem you are willing to use.  If 
you don't care what version will be used, and just want the latest 
version of whatever is installed, then there is no reason to even bother 
with the require_gem command.

--
-- Jim Weirich

-- 
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